Making Sense of Phonics

This bestselling book provides indispensable tools and strategies for explicit, systematic phonics instruction in K-3. Teachers learn effective ways to build students' decoding skills by teaching letter-sound relationships, blending, word building, multisyllabic decoding, fluency, and more. The volume is packed with engaging classroom activities, many specific examples, and research-based explanations. It offers a complete phonics assessment and clear guidelines for sequencing instruction to give every student a strong foundation for reading. More than 30 reproducible forms and word lists are included in the appendices. Purchasers get access to a webpage where they can download and print the reproducible materials in a convenient 8½“ x 11” size and find a wealth of supplemental teaching resources.

New to This Edition

• Six additional chapters covering key topics, including assessment, phonemic awareness, orthography, and automaticity.
• A complete phonics assessment with administering and scoring guidelines.
• Downloadable forms and word lists, plus a companion website with rich supplemental resources, including word/syllable cards, assessment tools, and illustrated stories featuring target words, which teachers can project or print for classroom use.
• More classroom examples and “Your Turn” activities, as well as expanded word lists.

See also Bringing Words to Life, Second Edition: Robust Vocabulary Instruction and Creating Robust Vocabulary: Frequently Asked Questions and Extended Examples, by Isabel L. Beck, Margaret G. McKeown, and Linda Kucan, which provide essential tools for K-12 vocabulary instruction.